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Virender Sehwag
Virender Sehwag (born 20th October 1978),''Zen master of modern cricket,''is one of the leading batsmen in the Indian Cricket Team. Sehwag is an aggressive right-handed opening batsman and a part-time right-arm off-spin bowler,he was orignally a middle-order batsman,but after his succseful form he was added to opening order . He played his first ODI in 1999 and joined the Indian Test team in 2001. In April 2009, Sehwag became the only Indian to be honoured as the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World for his performance in 2008, subsequently becoming the first player of any nationality to retain the award for 2009. He was dropped from the team for low form on 4th January 2013,his low performance also caused many fans of his to disregard him. Early years Sehwag was born in a Jat family from Haryana.The son of a grain merchant, Sehwag spent his childhood in a bungalow in a joint family, with siblings, uncles, aunts and sixteen cousins. Though now settled in New Delhi, the Sehwag family hails from Haryana. Sehwag was the third of four children born to father Krishan and mother Krishna Sehwag, with two older sisters Manju and Anju, and younger brother Vinod. His father attributes his interest in cricket to a toy bat which he was given when he was seven months old. He attended Arora Vidya School in Delhi, and pestered his parents to let him play cricket, on the basis that he was not academically gifted. His father tried to end his career when he broke a tooth as a child in 1990, but Sehwag evaded the ban with the help of his mother. Later he attended Jamia Milia Islamia for graduation. Cricketing career Early domestic cricket Sehwag made his debut for Delhi Cricket Team in first class cricket in the 1997–98 season. He was selected to the North Zone for the Duleep Trophy the following 1998–99 season, ending fifth in the total runscoring list.The following year he was fourth on the Duleep Trophy run scoring list, including a 274, the highest score of the competition. This was attained against South Zone at Agartala in just 327 balls, and followed a rapid 187 from just 175 in a Ranji Trophy match against Punjab Cricket Team.He was then selected for the U-19 team which toured South Africa.He was seventh in the 2000–01 season with two centuries, but his consistency earned the attention of selectors and he became a regular member of the national team in mid 2001. Since his international career started, he has continued to play for Delhi in the domestic competition whilst he is not occupied with international duty and has captained North Zone to victory in the Deodhar Trophy in 2004–05 and 2005–06. He also had a short stint with Leictershire in county cricket in 2003, but a back injury lead to a mutual termination of the contract. ODI career Sehwag's ODI career started poorly when he scored 1 against [Pakistan in the 6th game of 1999 Pepsi Cup the match was held in Mohali when he fell lbw to Shoaib Akhtar. His bowling performance was also ineffective and expensive, conceding 35 runs off only 3 overs having a economy of 11.66 Runs Per Over.. He did not get another chance in the national team for 20 months. Sehwag was not given another match until the home series against Zimbabwe in December 2000. Sehwag rose to prominence in his fourth ODI match in March 2001 when he scored 58 off 54 balls, against Australia in Bangalore. Combined with his three wickets for 59 runs, he helped earn India a massive 60 runs victory and was awarded his first man of the match award. He followed this with an unproductive tour of Zimbabwe in mid 2001. Sehwag had his international breakthrough in Sri Lanka in August 2001 when he was promoted to the opening slot for the tri-series also involving New Zealand. The promotion to open the innings came because regular opener Sachin Tendulkar was absent due to a foot injury. In the match against New Zealand that was to decide the finalist, he scored his maiden century from 69 balls.At the time, the century was the third fastest ODI century for an Indian behind [[Mohammedhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_AzharuddinAzharuddin]]s 62 ball and Yuvraj Singh's 64 ball. This was his first score beyond 50 in ten matches and saw him named man of the match.This performance earned him a regular spot in the ODI squad in the middle-order. He crossed Azharuddin's 62 ball century record by hitting a 60-ball century against New Zealand during the 2009 tour. An innings of note in 2002 was the fast 22 ball half-century against Kenya in Bloemfontein, tying the second fastest 50 by an Indian. Because of his attacking cricket stroke plays, Sehwag has got many fans, including the West Indies legend Desmond Haynes, who admitted that he is a great fan of him. With Sourav Ganguly injured in the India-England ODI Series in January 2002, Sehwag received another opportunity to open the innings which he seized by scoring 82 from only 64 balls in Kanpur in an eight-wicket Indian victory. With good performances as opener, Sehwag was made a permanent fixture at the top of the innings. Sachin Tendulkar was moved from opening postion to middle order – a strategy that reaped dividends for India in 2002 in ODI matches. In the England series and the preceding tour to South Africa, he compiled 426 runs at 42.6 with four half-centuries After modest returns on the tours of the West Indies and England in early and mid 2002, he scored 271 runs at 90.33 in the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka, with two man of the match performances. After running out Ian Blackwell, he was involved in a 192 run partnership with Ganguly, scoring 126 from 104 balls to help set up an eight wicket victory against England in a group match. He then scored 58 from 54 balls and took 3/25 including two wickets in the final over to help defeat South Africaby 10 runs and progress to the finals. In late 2002 he scored an unbeaten 114 from 82 balls that included a 196 run partnership with Ganguly to lead India to a nine wicket win over the West Indies in Rajkot. He was the only batsman to score a century in the 7 match New Zealand ODI Series where he made two centuries – 108 in Napier,India however lost that Match and 112 in Auckland in a one-wicket victory. Later in 2003, he scored his fourth century and earned Man of the Match award against New Zealand in Hyderabad, scoring 130 and putting on a 182 run partnership with Tendulkar, to lay the foundations for a 145 run victory.In spite of it, Sehwag struggled for consistency in 2003 and 2003/04 ODI series where he had only one century and 3 fifties, two against minnows – Bangladesh and Zimbabwe and one against Pakistan, in 22 matches. Even with his inconsistent form, he earned 3 MoM awards in 2004/5 and 2004/05 ODI season with one award each against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. In the match against Pakistan in Kochi he scored 108 off 95 balls, his first century in eighteen months which set up a 95 run victory. Sehwag then started a two year streak without a century in ODIs, as well as having his ODI tour of Pakistan in early 2006 curtailed due to a shoulder injury.His drought in limited overs cricket has puzzled cricket experts because of the consistent performances in Test with a high scoring rate has not translated into significant contributions in the ODI format of the game.Sehwag was axed from the ODI Squad in 2007. With debate over whether he deserved to be included in the 2007 World Cup squad, captain Rahul Dravid's insistence on his retention paved the way to being named in the World Cup squad.However, despite this assurance, Sehwag's form continued to decline. Sehwag started the 2007 World Cup in poor form, only being picked for the side because of Rahul Dravid's wishes. He scored poorly in the first group match but bounced back to hit a magnificent 114 from 87 deliveries against the lowly ranked Bermuda. The Indian team scored 413–5, the highest team total in a World Cup match, and went on to win the match but this was their only win in the tournament and they also got knocked out of the tournament only in the group stage. On 8 December 2011, Sehwag scored his highest ODI score against West Indies at Indore slamming 219 runs off only 149 Balls. In the same innings, he also crossed 8,000 runs in ODI Cricket and led India to their highest total of 415/5. On January 4th 2013,due to Sehwag's low form he was once again dropped out of the team by captain Dhoni,its unknown if he might return or not as he hasn't scored much runs in the last few games,causing many selecters and Dhoni to disregard him. Category:Cricketers Category:Cricketers at the 2003 Cricket World Cup Category:Indian Premier League Category:Indian ODI cricketers Category:Test cricketers Category:Indian Cricketers